Asterix and Cleopatra by Goscinny and Uderzo

This is the sixth Asterix adventure and possibly one of the best. Cleopatra makes a bet with Caesar to prove that Egypt is a great nation. “In three months’ time I’ll have a magnificent palace built for you in Alexandria!” 

Cleopatra gets local architect Edifis to build it but three months is not enough time, although he has an idea. He can use the magic powers of his friend the druid Getafix. 

So Asterix, Obelix and Getafix, or as Caesar describes them, “an old druid with a white beard, a cunning little one and a stupid great oaf” go to Egypt to help build the temple 

Of course things aren’t plain sailing with Edifis’s rival architect Artifis doing his best to scupper their efforts, and Caesar himself interfering, but in the end the job is done.

There are lots of jokes in this one with clever use of hieroglyphics in speech bubbles for example. All-in-all this is one of the best Asterix stories.

Amazon UK link: Asterix and Cleopatra

Publication date: 1963

The River Singers by Tom Moorhouse

This story follows Sylvan the water vole from his early days in the burrow with his mother, brother and two sisters. Very quickly it is clear that danger is everywhere as the outside is “full of weasels and owls and things that want to eat us”.

However these are dangers they can deal with, but a new danger arrives, “I hear whispers of a new enemy, a black creature, more vicious than the others.” This danger leaves the young motherless, and Sylvan, as the oldest, has a new found responsibility. “Yesterday life had been a game. Now he was a small, scared vole, huddled in a burrow, responsible for his siblings. And tomorrow they would have to fight or be driven from their home and into the unknown.”

This forces Sylvan to lead his family downstream, past other dangers. “Somewhere downstream was a home for them, he was sure of it. It was his job to get them there.”

Overall it has a plot similar to Watership Down, except it is about voles, or river singers as they are also known. This doesn’t matter too much of course. The fact that voles, minks, otters, herons etc. feature in the book gives children the ideal chance to learn a little more about these creatures in a fiction setting, a much easier environment to learn in my opinion than non-fiction texts. There is a little death along the way so your child will have to be able to deal with that, but if so this is a little gem of a book.

Amazon UK link: The River Singers

Publication date: 3 Oct 2013

Luton Town: The Modern Era second edition by Roger Wash

This second edition of “Luton Town: The Modern Era” carries on where the first edition left off with extra chapters covering seasons 1998-99 though to 2003-04

Overall it has short matter-of-fact chapters taking in every Luton season from 1967-68, when they won the Division Four title, through to 2003-04, the John Gurney season. The focus of these seems to be very much the transfer activity, these mainly being the days before the restrictive transfer windows were introduced, with some of the key games or runs being picked out too.

Also there is a “match of the season” feature each year where a key match is brought out in more detail, e.g. 1982-83 Manchester City 0 – 1 Luton Town.

There are black and white photos in the middle too, perhaps being moved here after being a little out of sync with the chapters in the first edition. The photos here are also different ones from those from the first edition. 

And at the end there are statistical summaries of each match for each of the seasons covered, although these are restricted to League, FA cup and League cup only, so no Auto Windscreens Shield for example. And if you want to flick between the statistical summaries and the written summaries for each season you need to be checking in different areas of the book.

The ending as a Town fan is a bit better than the first edition as after a long decline following relegation from the top flight in 91-92 through to being in the bottom division there is a promotion season near the end (2001-02). 

Overall then this is a useful bit of history for Town fans to read and find out more about their club.

Amazon UK link: Luton Town: The Modern Era (2nd edition)

Publication date: Feb 2009

Luton Town: The Modern Era first edition by Roger Wash

This first edition of “Luton Town: The Modern Era” has short matter-of-fact chapters taking in every Luton season from 1967-68, when they won the Division Four title, through to 1997-98. The focus of these seems to be very much the transfer activity, these being the days before the restrictive transfer windows were introduced, with some of the key games or runs being picked out too.

Also there is a “match of the season” feature each year where a key match is brought out in more detail, e.g. 1982-83 Manchester City 0 – 1 Luton Town.

There are black and white photos along the way too, although these are slightly out of sync with the chapters. And at the end there are statistical summaries of each match for each of the seasons covered, although these are restricted to League, FA cup and League cup only, so no Auto Windscreens Shield for example. And if you want to flick between the statistical summaries and the written summaries for each season you need to be checking in different areas of the book.

The ending as a Town fan is a bit sad as they are in decline from their relegation from the top flight in 91-92 through to a mid-table finish in the third tier in 1997-98 but overall this is a useful bit of history for Town fans to read and find out more about their club.

Amazon UK link: Luton Town: The Modern Era (1st edition)

Publication date: 1 Sep 1998

The Fastest Truck by Sally Prue and Rory Walker

“Tim the Truck is big and green.

He’s strong and fast and very mean.”

Everyone knows that people with the name Tim are nice. Like Tim Henman, the tennis player who was always gracious in defeat and who had a hill named after him until it was stolen by Andy Murray. And Harry Enfield had a character called Tim. He was nice.

But this book is about a nasty Tim. What’s that all about? But then I remembered that there was a badboy Tim, Tim Westwood, Radio 1 DJ, liker of fast cars. This book is for him.

Tim the truck is always speeding about not caring about all the other cars until one day he gets stuck and needs their help to escape so he changes his ways.

My 3-year-old daughter has been carrying around this book for the past week or two. She obviously likes the fact that it has a naughty Tim in it, so divorced from all the nice Tims she has come across in real life.

So for Tim Westwood and three-year-olds everywhere this is the book for them. 

Publication date: 12 May 2011

Amazon UK link: The Fastest Truck

Johnny Nothing by Ian Probert

The first thing you notice about this book is the pictures at the beginning of each chapter. Each is a full colour landscape-orientated scene or portrait. They really are works of art.

I read this story with my 7-year-old daughter over several bedtimes. She always wanted more. This is because the plot is easy to get to grips with and is in itself gripping too. There is a clear villain so she was rooting for the hero of the story, Johnny Nothing. I would say that with a little bit of language, and most of the adults in the story being smokers (although the author keeps reminding the readers not to smoke) I had to edit it a little bit, and it would be more suited to its audience if this was done at source.

The story begins with a funeral, that of Jacob Ermentrude Marley, the 296th richest person in the UK, quickly followed by a will reading. Johnny Nothing, so called because he has nothing, is one of the people there because Jacob was his uncle. A few adults are there too, including Johnny's parents. "When they looked at Uncle Marley they just saw money. Rolls and rolls of banknotes. Bundles and bundles of bunce. Loads and loads of loot. Dollops and dollops of dough. A stash of cash. A wagonload of wonga."

Johnny though isn't interested in the money, although he does inherit something, a cash card to an account with £1million in it. "Your task is to come back to this church in exactly one year's time and I want you to have more than £1million in that bank account. If you can manage to do that I will give you ten times what you have."

Only trouble is that his mother is "the worst parent of all time: the meanest, nastiest, smelliest, ugliest, sweatiest mother you could possibly imagine." She takes the cash card for safe keeping, but then goes on a never ending spending spree that is out of control, and Johnny, "an easy going, uncomplaining sort of boy, can do nothing. Things escalate and Johnny comes up with plans which fail. Even when he gets the cash card back things still escalate to leave his bank account with nothing in it. But there is a happy ending to the story of course. 

Overall then my 7-year-old daughter really enjoyed the story, but I think a little editing is required for the book to be totally suitable for its target audience.

(Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)

Publication date: 5 March 2014

Amazon UK link: Johnny Nothing

Asterix and the Banquet by Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo

This is the fifth Asterix adventure. Roman General Overanxious is on a special mission from Caesar. "All Gaul is at peace with the liberating Roman Army, except this one little village of dissidents."

After he fails to battle them into submission he has another idea. "We shall isolate the Gaulish village from the outside world. You'll have to be self-sufficient and live on the produce of your own village! The outside world will forget you."

Asterix has other ideas though and makes a bet that he and Obelix will be able to escape, go on a tour of Gaul and return with all the local food specialties from all over Gaul as prove, serving them in a big banquet. 

"And this is the start of the famous tour of Gaul."

The plot is a bit busy I feel and would be most appreciated if you knew France and the stereotypes of its people. However there are still some good jokes in here, mainly relating to Obelix's weight and some of the character names, such as a guy they meet who betrays them called Unpatriotix, and two highwaymen they encounter, Villanus and Unscrupulus. The pirates feature again, and Dogmatix is introduced, although not by name.

Overall maybe not the best Asterix but that is because of the high standards of the other ones.

Original release date: Feb 7th 1963

Amazon UK link: Asterix and the Banquet